KC man charged with murder said he drove shooter of pregnant woman with stroller
A Kansas City man has been charged in relation to the fatal shooting of a pregnant woman who was pushing a baby stroller near a gas station Monday.
Jovon Burrell, 19, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the fatal shooting of Diamon Eichlburger, 20. He told police he drove the vehicle the shooter was in.
Prosecutors have asked that Burrell’s bond be set at $500,000.
Officers were called just before 11:30 a.m. Monday to a shooting outside a 7-Eleven gas station in the 2700 block of Van Brunt Boulevard. There, they found a woman who was unresponsive and who was declared dead at the scene, Officer Doaa El-Ashkar, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department, said.
Police identified the victim as Eichlburger, who witnesses said was gunned down while pushing a 1-year-old baby in a stroller.
Eichlburger’s boyfriend, who was with her at the time, told police that they were walking from his home to the 7-Eleven with the child. As they were leaving the store, a gray car approached them near the parking lot
“Ain’t you Diamon?” someone asked from inside the car, which had its windows partially rolled down, court records show.
“Yeah, why?” Eichlburger responded. Then someone from inside the car began shooting. Five shell casings were found at the scene, according to charging documents.
Eichlburger’s boyfriend told police she was four months pregnant when she was killed, court records show. The 1-year-old child was not injured in the shooting.
During an interview with police, Burrell acknowledged that the shooter was a passenger in his car, but said he didn’t know who they were or why there was shooting.
Burrell also confirmed to police that he wrote an explicit post on Facebook shortly after the shooting that ended in “she dead she dead,” though he said it was a coincidence and not related to Eichlburger’s death. He also acknowledged he posted a video on social media that panned between the crime scene and a gun on someone’s lap, according to the charging documents.
“This is a gruesome taking of a mother’s life in broad daylight,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a Wednesday news release. “We will do all that’s within our power to bring justice to this victim’s family and the community.”
Eichlburger’s killing marked the 110th homicide this year in Kansas City, according to data maintained by The Star that includes law enforcement shootings. By this time last year, there had been 79 killings.
The homicide remains under investigation.
Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
